Ah RATS.....a Cracked Fairing

[Rio Wil]

Ahh Man!....while cleaning the fairing in the air scoop inlet, I discovered a huge crack on the left side of the scoop inlet.  Had to press down on the scoop to enlarge the crack for clarity, when released, it is barely visible. I guess taking the fairing off and mixing up a fiberglass patch from behind it is the appropriate remedy....anyone ever seen this??

[Ricky-D]

Find the end of the crack, the very end of the crack

and drill a nice clean hole.

About 3/16" is pretty good.

This will stop the crack from continuing on.

You can get the proper glue for the fairing at Lowes.

Fiberglass resin will not stick well to the fairing plastic.

***

[old2soon]

I just got done repairing a SEVERLY cracked saddle bag on my I/S. The good news is I did it myself with stuff available on line and at my local hardware store. Drilling the crack is an old trick from my aviation days in the U S Navy. The glue I used dries hard and is sandable and paintable. The glue I used is an Oatey product. The part # for a 4 fluid oz can is 30916. It cost less than 6 bucks. The cracks I had had a LOT of tension on them so after gluing up the crack and clamping with the same clamps you use for gluing up wood projects. On the inside of the bag I cut some 1 inch squares of eighth in thick A B S sheet and positioned them over the crack and glued those up and held them in place til they wouldn't slide on their own. The difficult part was waiting the 24 hrs for the glue to setup COMPLETELY. And when I released the clamp on the first repaired section it held-OH JOY.  You have to scuff up(read sand it out)the area you want the glue to adhere to. Like I said-this glue dries hard-sandable-paintable. And cheaper than a body shop.  RIDE SAFE.

[Rio Wil]

Thanks to both of you....I will take a look at that Oatey product and thanks for bringing up the material the fairing is made of.....don't know why my little mind went to fiberglass right away....

[pancho]

Hey Rio,, That Oatey product referred to is ABS cement,, should be availabel at any home improvement outlet,, also Oatey #30889 in the 8 oz. can will work for your project,,,, it is the only stuff to use on ABS plastic parts for a permanent repair.

[Rio Wil]

This ought to slow it down til I can get around to it......Man!  hate to have to pull the fairing off, don't think its a big deal......but still gotta do it.

[pancho]

That will hold you temporally,,,,,,,,,,,  the crack is certainly too big to forget about

[Tropic traveler]

Search for my saddlebag repair thread from a month ago or so.

Soldering iron & a can of the Oatey ABS cement mentioned is all I used.  

[old2soon]

There are 4 yes 4 bolts that hold the fairing on. The S O B on pulling the fairing is all the electrical and speaker wires under there.  RIDE SAFE.

[Rio Wil]

It will likely be a few months before getting around to this.......but will add a summary of the repair then....Thanks for the advice..

[LadyDraco]

I have a few cracks in my fairing..
And JB quick has done a bang up job for it..
I did  smear (technical term) much wider then the crack..
And  cleaned it good to de grease the area first..
Before applying ..
The crack has NOT gotten bigger 5 yrs later 50 +k later ..



I can see where yours is cracked  you'll have to maybe pull the whole  fairing  off..
And remove more...
Yes there are a few elec. connections .And speakers... And  while  you are in there  hit them all with a little dielectric grease ...
I have had my fairing off  a few times..



And yes  just 4 bolts hole it just like the tour shields..




Here's a link on removing fairing ..I was doing a steering head bearing at this time..
Removing the fairing to replace steering Head bearing

[Skinhead]

From where that crack is located, it looks like your fairing may have a thin spot along that countour, due to the mold shifting during injection of the plastic, after glueing, I would cut, heat and form some ABS pieces (see this site for an explaination http://goldwingdocs.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=690 ), and glue them to the inside of the fairing.  Should fix you right up.

[Rio Wil]

Skinhead....that Goldwing link has some really good tips on the use of ABS pipe and how to mold it to various contours.....good stuff!

Lady D.....thanks for the JB hint.......BTW, did you notice some swiped the entire front of your bike!!!!...

[cookiedough]

I've used JB weld 2 part mix in the past one small tube is black resin and the whitish/gray hardener resin mix together and have about 5-10 minutes tops to work it on with say a toothpick.  Don't need much but takes 24 hours to fully cure still a tad soft after a few hours of hardening but after say 10 minutes you cannot work it without messing it up worse.  It settles smooth pretty well with a toothpick and don't need much to go over the tiny crack it will hold fine.  It is paintable and sandable as well and has a very high psi strength once cured and dries medium gray finish.  Would be best to do it from the inside but either bonds will work just fine to hold it.  If you do it from the outside it will show no matter what you use since is not at all clear resin.  If you don't care about looks you could do it from the outside???

[BCoy]

Rio,
Check out PlastiFix the complete rigid plastic repair kit. Repair cracks. Fill gaps. Rebuild tabs. Fix stripped threads. I used this to fix my batwing on my Electra Glide. For your repair you would cut a gouge along the crack to create a void, sprinkle in the provided plastic powder then add the liquid. A chemical reaction takes place and bonds the materials together like welding plastic. This product has too many applications to list. Check out their website. www.plastifix.com

Bill

[Tropic traveler]

From this...



To this....


Using nothing but this....


And this....


$22 total cost with $11 of that being the orange pinstripe.

Unless you have gaping holes there is no need for any other fillers, the ABS is very malleable when heated with the soldering iron. If you don't get too happy with the heat you might be able to get it from the backside w/o ruining the paint. Give it a shot! 

[Rio Wil]

Wow......thats impressive, I am guessing you used a body filler  before painting?

[Tropic traveler]

Wow......thats impressive, I am guessing you used a body filler  before painting?

No, the ABS cement was my filler. The finish work & paint on this repair are by no means professional quality. Reason for not doing a proper finish job {other than me not being capable  } is that I plan a repaint with color change in the near future. I'll let a pro make my repair job purty.

[pancho]

I have a few cracks in my fairing..
And JB quick has done a bang up job for it..
I did  smear (technical term) much wider then the crack..
And  cleaned it good to de grease the area first..
Before applying ..
The crack has NOT gotten bigger 5 yrs later 50 +k later ..



I can see where yours is cracked  you'll have to maybe pull the whole  fairing  off..
And remove more...
Yes there are a few elec. connections .And speakers... And  while  you are in there  hit them all with a little dielectric grease ...
I have had my fairing off  a few times..



And yes  just 4 bolts hole it just like the tour shields..




Here's a link on removing fairing ..I was doing a steering head bearing at this time..
Removing the fairing to replace steering Head bearing

Just something about a woman that understands machinery and knows how to use tools...............

                           Good for you LadyDraco